Nights of Rain and Stars

by Maeve Binchy

  “Shut up and tell me where on God’s earth we’re going to find the money?” he said.

  “I lay in a bed and our baby drained away,” Fiona said.

  “That was not a child. It was a period. You know that, Fiona, so just tell me where we are going to get the money.”

  Something in Fiona snapped when she heard this. To her surprise she heard herself speaking calmly. “We’ll ask them, Shane, Vonni and I will, how much it is they want and then I’ll try and raise it.”

  “And where will you get it?”

  “We’ll get it somehow. But that’s not the most important thing, Shane.”

  “So what’s the most important thing?” he asked.

  “Well, that I’ve found you and that I love you forever.” She looked at him, waiting to see a response. There was nothing. “I adore you, Shane,” she said.

  “Sure,” he said.

  “So why don’t you kiss me?” she asked.

  “Oh God, Fiona, will you shut up about love and think who might get us the money!” he said.

  Again she felt something in her change. He had told her to shut up about love. Just as he had called their child a period. She was astounded that she was able to speak in such a level voice. “When we are able to borrow the money for bail, Shane, then we’ll have to get a job to pay it back,” she said.

  “You get a job if you want to. As soon as I’m out of here I have people to meet, contacts to make. I’ll have plenty of money then.”

  “You’re not coming back to Aghia Anna?”

  “That dump? No way.”

  “So where will you go, Shane?”

  “I’ll hang round Athens for a bit and then I might move up to Istanbul. It depends.”

  “What does it depend on?”

  “On who I meet, on what they say.”

  She looked at him levelly. “And am I to go with you to meet people and to Istanbul and everywhere?”

  He shrugged. “If you want to, but you’re not to nag me about settling down and getting jobs and dragging me back to that one-horse town. We left Ireland to get away from all that kind of shit.”

  “No, we left Ireland because we loved each other and nobody understood it. They kept putting difficulties in our way.”

  “Whatever,” Shane said.

  She knew that tone of voice. It was his switch-off voice. He used it when talking to people who bored him rigid. When they had escaped from such people Shane would sigh with relief and say that there were so many laws and restrictions in place, why wasn’t there a law against bores?

  Fiona knew now that she bored Shane. She began to understand that he had never loved her. Never at all. It was staggering and almost impossible to take in but she knew she was right. It meant that all this had been for nothing, all her hopes and dreams. All the fears and anxieties of the last days when she had been sleepless in case he would get in touch. He would never have got in touch if he hadn’t wanted the money for bail. She knew that her mouth was open and her eyes were widening. She knew that from the way he was looking at her.

  “What are you gawking at?” Shane asked her.

  “You don’t love me,” she said in a shaky voice.

  “Oh Lord God above, how often do I have to play the record? I said you could come with me if you wanted to. I just begged you not to nag me. Is that a crime? Tell me.”

  There was a wooden chair in the corner. Fiona sat down and buried her head in her hands.

  “No, Fiona, not now. Not when we have to think what to do. This is not the time to go all weepy and emotional on me. Leave it off, will you.”

  She looked up at him, her hair back from her face. Despite the makeup, the bruising was very visible. He stared at her.

  “What happened to your face?” he asked as if somehow repelled by it.

  “You did it, Shane. In the restaurant out on the point.”

  She had never before referred to his having beaten her. This was a first.

  He began to bluster. “I did not,” he said.

  Fiona was calm. “You’ve probably forgotten. It’s not important anymore.” She stood up as if to leave.

  “Where are you going? You’ve only just got here, we have to work this out.”

  “No, Shane, you have to work it out.”

  “Stop threatening me.”

  “I’m not threatening you, or nagging you. I’ve seen you and now I’m leaving.”

  “But the money? The bail?” His face was distorted. “Look, I’ll say all that stuff about love if it’s what you want . . . Fiona, don’t go.”

  She knocked on the door and Dimitri opened it for her. He seemed to have taken in the situation. There was a smile on his face. This drove Shane into a frenzy. He leaped toward Fiona and caught her by the hair. “You are not coming in here playing games like this with me!” he roared.

  But Dimitri was more speedy than anyone would have thought. He had his arm across Shane’s throat, forcing his chin upward. It meant he had to let go of Fiona in order to fight off the policeman. It was no contest. Dimitri was big and fit. Shane was no match for him.

  Fiona stood at the door for a moment, watching, then she moved out into the corridor and walked to the front office. Vonni was sitting there with a senior policeman.

  “They’re talking about two thousand Euro,” she began.

  “Let them talk about it, he’s not getting it from me,” Fiona said.

  Her head was high, her eyes were bright.

  Vonni looked at her, hardly daring to hope. Could it really be over? Could Fiona be free? It looked very like it indeed.

  FIFTEEN

  Thomas rowed the little boat back to the harbor. It seemed like coming home.

  They looked up the hills and pointed to the places they knew. That was the hospital on the Kalatriada road. And that was the road up to Andreas’s taverna. And there finally was the harbor and the café with the check tablecloths. It was all so different from California and Germany.

  They sighed as they came into the arms of the harbor. It was as if the escapism were over.

  Thomas and Elsa returned the little boat.

  “It was good, your voyage?” the old man asked.

  “A very good voyage,” Elsa said with a smile.

  “Avrio. You come again for the boat tomorrow?”

  Business had been slow and the old man wanted to secure as many bookings as he could.

  “Possibly, but not certainly,” Thomas said. He didn’t want to promise something that could not be delivered. He knew that Elsa would spend tomorrow getting ready for her trip back home. They hadn’t talked about it, but they both knew the leisurely rowing along the coastline had been a form of good-bye.

  They walked up the harbor road toward the town. “I wonder, will we forget this place eventually?” Thomas said.

  At exactly the same moment Elsa said, “Imagine all this busy world going on without us!”

  They laughed at thinking almost the same thought, and as they were passing a café, Thomas indicated that they should sit down.

  “Why not?” Elsa was pleased. “By this day next week there’ll be very little chance of dropping into a café, let’s make the most of it.”

  “Ah, speak for yourself,” Thomas said. “I’ll still be here dropping into cafés, rowing boats, reading in the sunshine.”

  “No, you’ll be on your way back to California,” she said with a great sense of being right about it.

  “Elsa! You’re as bad as Vonni. I told you I’m only three months into a sabbatical, I’m not going back until the year is over. And even if I could, it would only make things worse.” He was puzzled by her certainty.

  “I’ll send you a postcard. You’ll be there to get it,” she laughed.

  “You are so wrong. Why should I go?”

  “Because the great goddess of this island, Vonni, has said you should go, and when she speaks, things happen. And look, David is leaving tomorrow . . .”

  “But he’s the only one, and his fathe
r is dying, he has to go; she was right about him. The rest of us aren’t taking any heed of her. Fiona’s gone to Athens to find her madman, you’re leaving, I’m staying. One out of four, that’s not a great score.”

  “The game isn’t over. I’d say she’ll have a much higher score in the end.”

  Andreas came over to their table. “May I join you? I have some good news to share.”

  “Adonis?” Elsa gasped with excitement.

  Andreas shook his head. “No, not as good as that, alas, but still good. The little Fiona has turned her back on Shane, she has walked out on him, straight out of the police station. She and Vonni are on the last ferry, they will be back by sunset.”

  “How do you know?” Thomas asked.

  “One of the police telephoned Georgi with the news. She did not even try to raise bail.” Andreas spread out his hands at the mystery of it all.

  “But why? Why on earth did she go to all that trouble and then walk out on him?” Elsa was mystified.

  “Apparently he hit her or hurt her somehow,” Andreas said hesitantly.

  “Well, he sure did that before and it didn’t worry her,” Thomas said grimly.

  Elsa was thoughtful. “This must have been different. Something happened there to make her see him as he is.”

  “Well, it is all very much for the best,” Andreas said. “And David is coming up to dinner in my taverna tonight, to say good-bye, he is leaving Aghia Anna tomorrow afternoon. I wanted to ask you to join us, and Georgi will pick up Fiona at the ferry and take her there. Say yes?”

  Thomas asked, “And will Vonni join the dinner too?”

  “I hope so, yes indeed.” Andreas’s smile was warm at the thought of cooking for so many friends.

  Thomas spoke quickly. “You are so kind, Andreas, but alas, Elsa and I have to meet someone tonight for dinner. What a pity—we would have much preferred to have gone to you.”

  Elsa picked it up quickly. “Yes, that’s such bad timing,” she said. “Can you tell David we’ll see him at the harbor at midday?”

  Andreas understood. He understood more than they realized. Of course, it was very last-minute, he reassured them. But he could read signs as well as anyone. These two wanted to be alone. He didn’t say it, however, and left them courteously.

  They watched as he saluted the waiters and many of the customers.

  “Amazing to be so centered, so rooted in a place like he is,” Thomas said admiringly, watching the old man leave.

  “Why did you say that, about us having dinner?” Elsa asked.

  Thomas was silent for a moment. “I don’t really know, Elsa, but I knew you didn’t want another run-in with Vonni, and as it happens I share your view: neither do I. I also didn’t want to hear one word tonight about Shane. And . . . and . . .”

  “And what?”

  “And I’ll miss you when you go. I wanted some more time together before you left, just the two of us.”

  She gave him one of her extraordinary smiles. “Those were all very good reasons, Thomas, and as it happens, to use your phrase . . . I share every one of them!”

  Fiona and Vonni walked through Piraeus. Such a busy place, a city in its own right. They were jostled by the crowds as they walked together, Fiona dragging her large suitcase. But she was very cheerful.

  “You were right, Vonni, about all those fish restaurants. Can I treat you to a meal? I don’t know what we’d call it, late lunch, afternoon tea?”

  “Oh, I’d love some barbouni,” Vonni said, clapping her hands like a child being offered an ice cream.

  “That’s red mullet. I know that much. Here, does this place look all right to you?”

  “It looks fine. Shall I tell him it’s barbouni and fries for two?” Vonni asked.

  “Great, and I could murder a bottle of retsina.”

  “Sure,” Vonni said.

  Fiona bit her lip. What a thoughtless thing to have said to a woman who must never touch alcohol.

  “Or fizzy water,” she said lamely.

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Fiona, drink the retsina. You’re entitled to it, and if I’m going to break out, it won’t be because my dining companion has her snout in that paint stripper of a wine. Even in my worst days I couldn’t swallow it. So you’re not putting me in any temptation.”

  They talked companionably of the life of a big port like this, sailors coming and going, fishermen unloading their catch, students with backpacks getting off boats, and the rich yachting set driving to their berths farther on. It was a lively scene.

  At no stage did Vonni mention the scene at the police station. Nor a future for Fiona without Shane. Fiona would bring the matter up when and if she wanted to, and they were both easy with that.

  When it was time to leave for the ferry that would take them back to Aghia Anna, Fiona asked for the bill.

  “Loghariasmo!” said the waiter, presenting it to her.

  “You know, it’s like the word for those logarithms we did at school.”

  “Do they still have those? Here, let me pay half,” Vonni said.

  “Yes, but they may be gone since my time,” Fiona said. “No, put your money away, you bought the ferry tickets.”

  “I have a job, which is more than you have,” Vonni protested.

  “Look at it this way . . . I’m actually two thousand Euro to the good because of today’s events. I call that as good as winning the lottery.”

  And the two women smiled at each other. In many ways it was better than winning the lottery.

  On the boat back to Aghia Anna, Vonni saw Fiona gripping the boat rail and looking out to sea. Her lips were moving. She might be praying. Or crying. Or just working something out. Whatever it was, Vonni didn’t think she needed any assistance, or even conversation.

  David helped Andreas in the kitchen. “I’ll miss all this so much,” he said.

  “Perhaps you could cook for a while for your father.”

  “It’s not the same.”

  “No, but it won’t be for very long and he might like it. Take out your notebook and write this down. I tell you how to make a good moussaka. Do you have melitzanes in England?”

  “Aubergines, eggplant? Yes, we do.”

  “Then I’ll show you, it will please him to see you cook for him.”

  “Do you think so?” David was doubtful.

  “I don’t think so, I know so,” said Andreas.

  Georgi telephoned from the harbor. He had waylaid Fiona and Vonni. They would be at the taverna in fifteen minutes.

  “Georgi says that Fiona is in great form,” Andreas said.

  “She must have got that fool out of jail then,” David said glumly.

  “No, on the contrary. I was about to tell you. She turned her back on him. Left him there.”

  “For the moment. She’ll go back for him.”

  “I think not, but I suggest that we let her tell us herself. Do you agree?”

  “Oh yes, that’s always my policy,” David said. “And is she speaking to Vonni still?”

  “The best of friends apparently, according to Georgi.”

  David laughed. “Aren’t you a wonderful pair of old gossips.”

  “If you can’t gossip with your own brother, I ask you, then who is there to gossip with? Have you that notebook?”

  “Right, a kilo of the best minced lamb, what next?”

  “Would you like to go to the Anna Beach?” Thomas suggested to Elsa.

  “No, it’s too . . . I don’t know . . . too full of chrome and opulence. Besides it doesn’t have good memories for me. What about that little place out on the point where the waves break?”

  Thomas didn’t want to go there. “It reminds me too much of the day that savage hit Fiona. He came at her with his fist. He could have broken every bone in her face.”

  “But it didn’t happen, and now she has left him,” Elsa said soothingly. “So where will we go? It can’t be too public. We did say we were meeting someone.”

  “Will we get some
kebabs and wine and go back to my place?” Thomas suggested.

  “Sure, that’s great. And if Vonni sees us, we can say something.”

  “She’s on henhouse duty at the moment, she won’t come in. But just suppose she does, we’ll tell her that our friend, an unreliable German, didn’t turn up.”

  “No, she’d never believe that. A German unreliable? Not in a million years.” Elsa laughed at him. “Let’s make it an unreliable American.”

  “How grossly unfair. No, I won’t have such a slur on my people. An unreliable Irishman maybe?”

  “No. Vonni’s Irish. She’d know him, reliable or unreliable. It had better be something else. English, I think.”

  “That’s so unfair to poor David, who is by far the most reliable of the four of us. But these are desperate times needing desperate remedies. English he is then, the bad man who let us down. I’ll leave a note for Vonni saying I’ll be back later and then let’s go buy supper.”

  There was a definite change in Fiona, they could all sense it. She held her shoulders back, she smiled more readily. She had lost that stoop and the slightly defensive tone. Suddenly you could see the kind of girl she had been before. She ran around helping to get things organized for the evening dinner.

  There were three tables of customers, all of them English-speaking. Fiona translated the menu and advised them all to start with dolmades. They were made on the premises, Fiona assured them, and were excellent. She suggested the house wine, which was inexpensive and good. Soon she had them so well organized that little Rina, the girl who sometimes helped in the kitchen, could serve them.

  That meant that Andreas could sit with his party and look at the lights going on down in the heart of Aghia Anna.

  “A pity Thomas and Elsa couldn’t join us,” David said.

  “Oh well, you know.” Andreas shrugged.

  The others didn’t know, but it wasn’t something to argue.

  “I’ll never forget this place, never,” David said with a catch in his voice.

  “You’ll come back and visit us again often.” Andreas spoke quickly before David became emotional.

  “Oh, I will. It won’t be the same, but I will,” he promised.

  “And you, Fiona, you are very good with people, you look after them well, would you like to work here?” Andreas said unexpectedly.